Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Introducing the New Meerkat-Enabled T. Rex, or Tiny Arms No More!

June 19th, 2007 · Advertising, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Nature, Pets

Detail From T-Rex MEGo look at what Eli made.

Just go look.

When you get there, be sure to click on the thumbnail to look at the large version of the image.

The wonderfulness of it is hardly to be fathomed.



 
Illustration: Detail from “Tyrannosaurus M.E.” by Hob, aka my pal Eli. I also highly recommend his mini-book of drawings Discrete/Discreet.

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Merry Marvel Movie Society

June 18th, 2007 · Books, Comics, Culture, Film, Journal, News

Son of Origins of Marvel ComicsI haven’t even seen the Silver Surfer movie yet — I’m half dreading it — but I came across this little cache of news about what’s in the Marvel superhero movie pipeline:

Iron Man will be heading for post-production in July, and a “reboot” of The Incredible Hulk will go into production in Toronto the same month for release in 2009. A script for a Thor film has been written and a Captain America script is being written as well. Sub-Mariner is in rewrites. And apparently an Avengers film is not out of the question, eventually. Also, “there will definitely be another Spider-Man adventure.” On the X-Men spinoffs front, Wolverine is likely to be released before Magneto, even though Wolverine doesn’t have a director signed yet. (David Goyer has been announced as the director of Magneto.)

Wikipedia says the Iron Man film will be released May, 2008, and stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, as well as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, and Leslie Bibb.

Quote from Robert Downey, Jr. on Tony Stark: “”Stan Lee created the character on a dare to see if he could make a wealthy, establishment, weapons manufacturing, hard drinking, womanising prick into someone who is likeable and a hero.” Click the Wikipedia link above to see a promo shot of him in character.

Although X-Men loomed much larger in my comic-reading youth, I have a small sentimental attachment to Iron Man because it was the first Marvel comic I ever read, picked up at some Stuckey’s on a long summer vacation drive circa 1977. Prior to that I think the only comic books I’d ever read had been the kiddie stuff like Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck.

Within a year of discovering Marvel, I’d worked my way through all of Stan Lee’s Origins books and was completely assimilated. From Iron Man I branched out to The Avengers, Daredevil, X-Men. I had monthly subscriptions to at least half a dozen titles at one point, and would blow my allowance on whatever else I could find at the supermarket. I read every word of the “Bullpen Bulletin” and I was a card-carrying member of FOOM. I had shelves of comics in little mylar bags, the whole shameful business.

Then when I was almost out of high school someone at Marvel decided that Storm, my favorite character at the time, should stop being a gentle plant-whispering earth-goddess type and instead turn into a violent ass-kicking street fighter with a mohawk, and suddenly superhero comic books were dead to me. At least until I was old enough for them to become nostalgia.

After that they weren’t for me anyway — comic books in the mid-to-late 80s turned dark and gritty and “realistic” (read: more violent), and I didn’t want them that way. I liked them colorful and metaphysical and head-trippy the way Marvel was in the late 70s, all Doctor Who and Carlos Castaneda and Harlan Ellison. Characters having surreal conversations with personifications of “Order” and “Chaos.” I was never in comic books for the brawling, I was in them for the magic and the angst and the characters dealing with the impact of being freaks who had secret lives. I liked it when the X-Men took a whole issue to go on a picnic and talk about their personal lives with each other, and the super-villain only popped up on the very last page. I was a funny kid. (With, it must be noted, a serious crush on Piotr Rasputin.)

It’s odd, I don’t always enjoy the Marvel movies — Daredevil was particularly bad and the first Fantastic Four wasn’t much better — but I always go see them. I go for a little glimpse of something that’s gone out of the world now, but sometimes you can catch the shadow of it out of the corner of your eye if you look.

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Roundup: Tiny Four-Eyed Turtle Edition

June 18th, 2007 · Activism, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Education, Health, Human Rights, Internet, iTunes, Labor, Law, LGBT, Music, Nature, News, Pets, Politics, Science, Tech

Tiny turtle

  • POLITICS: In “Hillary’s Labor Problem,” Joe Conason points out that Hillary Clinton’s top political strategist, Mark Penn, is the CEO of a union-busting law firm. “Having started in a tiny, two-man polling operation in a New York City mayoral campaign, he is now the CEO of Burson-Marsteller Inc., one of the planet’s largest P.R. shops, with corporate clients ranging from Microsoft to Shell Oil and Pfizer. For progressive voters, those connections should raise questions about Penn’s dominant role in the Clinton campaign, especially because he has reportedly boasted about the business benefits of his political power.”
  • Conason links to this piece in The Nation, which digs deeper into Mark Penn’s unsavory background. Penn is apparently an old buddy of Dick Morris, who helped Morris push the Clintons to the right in the mid-90s. Triangulation and welfare “reform,” anyone? Penn’s polling firm during the Clinton era “defended Procter and Gamble’s Olestra from charges that it caused anal leakage, blamed Texaco’s bankruptcy on greedy jurors and market-tested genetically modified foods for Monsanto.”
  • THE PINK SECTION: Too bad — Dallas won’t be getting a gay mayor after all. Your loss, miss things.
  • Colombia is on the verge of becoming the first Latin American country to give gay couples in longterm relationships full rights in the areas of health insurance, inheritance, and social security.
  • Meanwhile, in Chile, homophobes calling themselves “skinheads” have repeatedly hacked the Web site of the country’s leading gay rights organization, and sent them emails with threats of violence. Via Towleroad.
  • THE GREEN SECTION: 2007 is officially the hottest year on record so far. Which has been fairly evident in my 90-degree home office lately.
  • A rare endangered turtle has hatched at the Tennessee Aquarium. The baby turtle hatched June 9, weighing only 0.21 ounces and measuring 1.52 inches long. There are currently only 18 known members of its species in the US and Europe. Once common in southern China, the Beal’s four-eyed turtle (named for the white spots on the back of its head that look like an extra pair of eyes) “has been over collected for use in the Chinese food and traditional medicine trade.” (Photo credit: AP Photo/Tennessee Aquarium.)
  • Better lab techniques may reduce the use of animals for toxicity testing as well as speeding up the process. That would be nice.
  • SOCIAL STUDIES: Kids in Oakland are learning “mindfulness” techniques drawn from Buddhist meditation to quiet and focus the mind during their schoolday.
  • Two women at Yale Law School have filed a suit that includes subpoenas for 28 anonymous posters at AutoAdmit, a site that’s become famous for racist and sexist defamatory attacks on female law students.
  • “Tattoo Regret”: According to the NY Times, the tattoo removal business is growing, with chains of tattoo removal stores like Dr. Tattoff doing brisk business.
  • MUSIC: Amnesty International’s album of John Lennon covers Instant Karma: the Campaign to Save Darfur (which I wrote about previously here) was officially released last Tuesday. You can get it from iTunes or from Amazon.
  • “Fake Empire” by The National is all over the Internet — Atrios posted it as a promo MP3 last week and I can’t stop listening to it. It’s from their new album, Boxer. I remember liking The National’s album Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, but they seem to have made a real leap forward with this one. After the song got stuck in my head I wound up downloading the whole thing from iTunes and I’m glad I did. Here’s an iTunes link (yeah, I just figured out how to do those and I’m drunk with power).
  • THE COMICS SECTION: Tom the Dancing Bug: Pop culture was better when you were twelve. Plus Bob Geiger’s Saturday Cartoon Roundup, and a handy guide to upcoming Doonesbury strips.
  • THE SOCK DRAWER: Someone has invented a pillow that will shake the stuffing out of you and wake you up if you start snoring.

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Music: Crowded House Releases “Don’t Stop Now” (with Video and Neil Finn Interview)

June 18th, 2007 · Culture, iTunes, Music, New Wave, News, Video

Crowded House Don’t Stop NowCrowded House’s new single “Don’t Stop Now,” written with Johnny Marr, was released last week and is available from iTunes. (Click the record cover at right for a handy iTunes link.)

Meanwhile, I’m thrilled to report that I have a ticket for the Sunday, Aug. 19 show at House of Blues here in Chicago. (I got shut out of the first show on Aug. 18, which sold out in less than 24 hours.)

There was a nice profile/interview piece in the New Zealand Herald last Thursday, in which Neil talks about the new album and also mentions something I hadn’t known — that the reunion was in the works even before Paul Hester committed suicide.

There were whispers between the former bandmates about a reunion before Crowded House drummer Paul Hester died in 2005.

At the end of 2004, Hester joined Neil and Tim Finn on stage at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne. Also that year the Finns played with Seymour in Belfast.

“In both cases we really had a good time hanging out,” says Finn.

“There was a growing feeling that maybe there was more to be had and he [Hester] was in a good state of mind then,” says Finn of the gig in Melbourne.

Sadly, a few months later, Hester committed suicide.

Neil also talks about how Paul’s death is reflected in the songs on the new album.

“There’s quite a lot of stuff that’s come as a result of all of that,” says Finn. “But I think in most cases I’ve made songs follow a couple of different threads, I guess to not reveal too much but also to try to describe the mixture of feelings that it brings up.

“I think there’s a lot of him in the record but it informs a lot of different songs, sometimes in a subtle way and sometimes more directly. English Trees relates to the day I heard; A Sigh is a note of resignation and deep sadness; and People Are Like Suns is a contemplation on the very flash of our lives.”

You sense Finn has Hester in mind when he reflects on how music is more precious to him now than ever. “It marks your life out. Apart from the love of two people, which is beyond all, I love it.”

Here’s the very pretty video for “Don’t Stop Now.” That Neil is still just as cute as a bug’s ear. God knows where the satellite’s taking us …

And he can still deliver a bridge section like the world is about to end.

 
I love how the animation interacts with the lyrics on lines like I hang on every word and get fooled by the lightning every time … very fun.

And, give me something I can write about, indeed.

“Don’t Stop Now” on iTunes:

Crowded House - Don't Stop Now - Single

Previously on Ocelopotamus:

 

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In Chicago: Rachel Claff Is Busting Out All Over

June 17th, 2007 · Blogs, Books, Chicago, Culture, Film, Fringe, LGBT, Lit, Music, Neo-Futurists, New Wave, News, Nightclubs, Performance, Poetry, The Partly Dave Show, Theater

Neo-Futurist XanaduI haven’t done one of these Chicago Fringe scene reports in a while, so here’s what’s on my radar this week:

  • The Neo-Futurists’ annual festival It Came From The Neo-Futurarium VI: Curse of The Neo-Futurarium, consisting of staged readings of various camp-ready old films, kicks off this Thursday, June 21 at 8pm. The first installment is a sing-along version of Xanadu, yes that Xanadu, directed by Phi Ridarelli. The series is curated by Neo-Futurist and Partly Dave Show regular Rachel Claff along with Dina Connolly, and that’s Rachel in the roller skates in the photo at right. Other titles coming up this year include Madame X and The Ten Commandments. (I wonder if that’s in honor of the 17-year locusts …) You can view the complete schedule on the Neo-Futurist site.
  • Speaking of La Claff, Rachel created a really fun happening called “Memorial Day II” a couple of Sundays ago. In essence, a group of people in formalwear (some of them, anyway) traveled around Chicago on a summer Sunday, installing plaques in various locations commemorating important moments in their lives that took place at those spots. I wasn’t able to participate myself due to work constraints (blargh), but fortunately for us all Rachel has posted all kinds of fun pictures and stories from the event on her Local Disturbances blog. You may recognize some other Partly Dave Show folks among the participants. I like Edward Thomas-Herrera’s story of making a snow angel in his first snowfall ever, circa 1990, after he moved here from Texas.
  • Tuesday June 26 will be the annual LGBT Pride open mike reading at Women & Children First Books. I’ve performed at it a number of times myself in past years, and it’s always a great evening. This year’s edition will be co-sponsored by A Field Guide to Gay & Lesbian Chicago. Featured readers are Achy Obejas, JT Newman, Sheree Greer, Rick Karlin, Robert McDonald, and Gregg Shapiro. Open mike readers are invited to bring one double-spaced page of poetry or prose to read. The slots fill up quickly, and readers are encouraged to sign up ahead of time by calling the store at 773-769-9299. Light refreshments will be served. Women & Children First Books, 5233 N Clark St., 7pm.
  • Speaking of A Field Guide to Gay & Lesbian Chicago, one of its authors, Robert McDonald, will be leading a three-hour hour intensive poetry workshop, “Serious Play,” at the Uptown Writers Space on Saturday June 23, from 1-4 pm. The official description: “Jumpstart your muse and discover new avenues to poetry creation in this energetic, fast-paced workshop. Using chance, collaboration, borrowed snippets of text, and games modeled on those used by the Dadaists and New York School poets, we’ll write poems as a group and as individuals.” The cost is $25 bucks, or $20 for members of the Uptown Writer’s Space.
  • This week’s edition of Homolatte, Scott Free’s ever-popular cabaret night showcasing queer writers and musicians, features performance poet Kay Barrett and musician Alia. Tuesday, June 19th at 7:30pm, at Big Chicks/Tweet, 5024 N. Sheridan. Free admission with pass the hat for the artists.
  • I had a great time last Monday performing at Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova’s monthly poetry night at Molly Malone’s. The crowd there is great — a very writerly room, and they gave one of the best open mikes I’ve ever seen. I’ll be back, Molly.
  • The Partly Dave Show site has been updated with a big candy-heart thank you to all who attended the podcast benefit back in May, and a PayPal donation button for anyone who wasn’t able to attend but would still like to help make the podcast a reality.
  • This is going back a ways, but back in early May Partly Dave Show co-host and Time Out Chicago theater critic Christopher Piatt posted an interesting rebuttal to this year’s Jeff Citation nominations (actually co-written with fellow TOC critic Novid Parsi), on the Time Out Chicago blog.
  • Finally, if you’re not doing anything tonight (Sunday) and are in the mood for some good music at a rocked-out little bar, Dave Roberts of Planet Earth Chicago will be spinning new wave, punk, and etc. in his inimitable fashion at Club Foot down in Wicker Park. (Dave doesn’t spin at Club Foot all that often anymore, so this is an occasion.) Kristine will be serving up killer drinks and conversation at the bar as always on Sunday nights. That’s 1824 West Augusta, near Damen. Dave’ll probably start spinning about 10pm.

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The Disappearing Bird Act

June 17th, 2007 · Climate Change, Illinois, Nature, News, Science

Evening GrosbeakThe populations of 20 common US birds — including a range of familiar “backyard birds” such as sparrows, chickadees, whippoorwills, and larks — are in decline, according to a new report from The National Audobon Society. The 20 species in question have less than half the populations they did in 1967. A variety of factors are to blame, including loss of habitat due to suburban sprawl, climate change, and invasive species.

Nationwide, the most devastated population is that of the evening grosbeak (at right):

Some of the birds, such as the evening grosbeak, used to be so plentiful that people would complain about how they crowded bird feeders and finished off 50-pound sacks of sunflower seeds in a few days. But the number of colorful and gregarious grosbeaks has plummeted 78 percent in the past 40 years.

Our old friend Bob White is in trouble as well:

The northern bobwhite and its familiar wake-up whistle once seemed to be everywhere in the East. Last Christmas, volunteer bird counters could find only three and only 18 Eastern meadowlarks in Massachusetts.

The bobwhite had the biggest drop among common birds. In 1967, there were 31 million of this distinctive plump bird. Now they number closer to 5.5 million.

The Chicago Tribune says Illinois birds have been particularly hard hit.

In four decades, Illinois’ populations of bobolinks, black grassland songbirds with a white back and a yellow nape, dropped 97 percent, according to the study. Eastern meadowlarks’ numbers dropped 87 percent. The short-eared owl population plummeted by more than half.

Loss of habitat is especially key here:

The state has lost more than 99 percent of its original prairie and 90 percent of its original wetland acreage to development and agriculture.

… The findings tell a story bigger than a few bird species because they serve as indicators of the health of entire ecosystems, said Chicago region Audubon Director Stephen Packard.

“These birds are just the tip of a melting iceberg,” he said.

… a particularly well-turned metaphor given the climate change dimension of all this.

Devilstower has a thoughtful post on the subject at Daily Kos, and asks:

It’s one thing to hear that the last representative of some exotic and endangered species has passed away. But are we ready to live without meadowlarks? Without bobwhites? Without whippoorwills? We’re not there yet, but if we don’t do something to address sprawl and the growing demand for resources, we soon will be.

I often wonder what it will take to get through to the people who don’t understand why wetlands conservation matters, the global warming denialists, the “earth is not fragile” crowd. I’d like to think the idea of back yards without birdsong might make a dent, but then again, that would imply better listening skills than have previously been demonstrated.

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Roundup: Return of the Mouse Edition

June 15th, 2007 · Activism, Apple, Books, Comics, Culture, Fiction, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, Healthcare Crisis, HIV/AIDS, iTunes, LGBT, Lit, Macintosh, Music, News, Organic Food, Politics, Roundup, Tech, Theater

Michael Tolliver Lives

  • BOOKS: This week marked the release of Armistead Maupin’s new book Michael Tolliver Lives, which picks up the story of Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, the iconic character from Maupin’s Tales of the City series. Mouse is now in his mid-50s, living with HIV but happily married. Maupin says, “I wanted to tell the story of a gay man getting older — especially one who thought death was imminent and is now confronting normal mortality.” (We also get to find out what’s become of Mary Ann Singleton, and other characters from the series.) In honor of Maupin and the new book, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom declared Tuesday “Michael Tolliver Day.” Meanwhile, this piece from the SF Chronicle gives some interesting background on Maupin’s misguided conservative youth — including a stint working for Jesse Helms! — and his eventual proud transformation into someone worthy of being denounced by Helms on the Senate floor.
  • POLITICS: John Edwards offers new details on his proposal for universal health care: “… [Edwards] also said his plan would require health insurance companies to spend at least 85 percent of the premiums they collect on patient care, adding that 30 percent of insurance premiums currently go toward administrative expenses and profit. He said New York, Minnesota, New Jersey, Florida already impose similar requirements.”
  • THE GREEN SECTION: The Independent reports that organic farming is booming in Europe, and helping European farmers turn failing farms around. But there is some controversy over proposed organic labeling standards, which would permit up to 0.9 percent genetically modified organisms — which green activists say is too high of an allowance.
  • Polar bears are not only under assault from global warming — trophy hunting is taking a toll as well. Back in 1994, Congress gave in to pressure from trophy hunting groups and amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow hunters to bring home dead polar bears from the Canada Arctic. Fortunately, a new bill called the Polar Bear Protection Act has been introduced to restore the protections of the MMPA to polar bears. You can read more about it, and contact your legislators to support the bill, on the Humane Society’s site.
  • The horrible things we do to animals. A man drowns a horse at an annual county horse fair in the UK, as part of an abusive “dunking” tradition, during which horses are ridden bareback into the river and then the horses’ heads are dunked under the water by their riders. The worst part of it all? Despite the accident, this idiotic event will happen again next year. “… Eden councillor Ella Langan, who chairs a committee in charge of planning the event, said there were no plans to stop the tradition in light of Friday’s accident. She said: ‘We’re hoping to introduce a ramp for the horses to get into the water for next year, but there’s certainly no way the historic ritual will be stopped.'” Via Towleroad.
  • THE PINK SECTION: Are local media in Indiana guilty of ignoring a horrific anti-gay hate crime? After fatally beating Aaron Hall for two hours, “dragging him down a staircase while his head slammed into each step,” and then leaving him in a ditch to die, his teenage murderers are hauling out the gay panic defense, claiming they did it because Hall “propositioned” them. Only a single alternative paper in Indiana reported on the crime, and many have been questioning the Indiana media’s silence.
  • In a big step forward, three major reggae stars have agreed to stop promoting anti-gay violence. The three, including Beenie Man, Sizzla, and Capleton, have all been guilty of using homophobic lyrics that in some cases call for the murder of gay people. The new agreement, called the Reggae Compassionate Act, has the artists pledging to “respect the lives of all individuals to live without fear of hatred and violence due to their religion, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity or gender.” The artists also say they’ll stop making statements and performing songs that incite hatred or violence toward LGBT people. However, a number of major reggae artists – most notably Buju Banton — have not signed the agreement and will apparently keep on spreading hate.
  • STAGE: Mel Brooks decides not to cast Cloris Leachman as Frau Blucher in the new musical version of Young Frankenstein, but Cloris doesn’t want to take no for an answer.
  • The critics can be so catty: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s kitten Otto has reportedly destroyed the score for Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The composer told the Daily Mail, “I was trying to write some new music; Otto got into the grand piano, jumped onto the computer and destroyed the entire score for the new Phantom in one fell swoop.”
  • TECH: Macworld has a first look at the new Desktop and Finder in Leopard. Some of iTunes’ cool navigational features, like Cover Flow and the sidebar setup, are being extended to all Finder windows. And I have to say the new Dock’s “platform” design looks really cool.
  • A new filter for cameras may make it easier to take clear pictures in low-light conditions. Camera phones may benefit the most. “Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday it has developed a color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera, enabling shutterbugs to take better pictures in poor light.”
  • THE COMICS SECTION: Tom Tomorrow has a typical day at the Justice Department circa 2005.

(h/t Norm Sloan for a couple of items here.)

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Stephen Colbert on James Holsinger and His Weird Plumbing Analogies

June 15th, 2007 · Comedy, Culture, Health, LGBT, Politics, TV, Video

Stephen Colbert dedicates The Word to Bush’s gay-hating Surgeon General nominee, James Holsinger, and shares some of Holsinger’s amazing insights into what plumbing can teach us about human sexuality.

 
(h/t After Elton)

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Music: Jacques Brel, Marc Almond, and “Jacky” — with a Side of David Bowie

June 12th, 2007 · Comedy, Culture, Film, LGBT, Music, New Wave, Performance, Video

Tenement SymphonyAs Marc Almond-mania mounts to fever pitch in anticipation of the impending release of Marc’s new album Stardom Road later this month, this post at After Elton has me thinking about Jacques Brel — who has long held a secure spot among the top 10 artists who make me wish my command of French were better.

One of my favorite tracks from the superb Tenement Symphony — possibly Marc’s best solo album — is his cover version of Jacques Brel’s “La Chanson de Jacky” (retitled as simply “Jacky”).

Here’s a video of Brel himself performing his original version of the song, in French with English subtitles. You get to see what a consummate performer Brel was, as he brings out the song’s mordantly self-aware comedy.

 
To be for one hour, only one hour’s time
handsome, handsome, handsome
… and stupid at the same time.

Now here’s Marc performing his Tenement Symphony version (using the Mort Shuman English translation from Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris). I love the excitement he brings to the song — he plays down the comedic tone a little bit, in order to play up the passion and yearning behind it. Which of course allows it to tap into Marc’s particular genius, since he ranks alongside Morrissey as one of popular music’s pre-eminent poets of unfulfilled desire.

The result is an adrenaline-charged paean to the need to be loved, in which the exhilaration comes from the expression of pent-up frustration as an overflowing torrent of poetic improvisation.

 
If I could be only for an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
… cute in a stupid-ass way.

Of course, it’s important to note here that Marc’s version is universally acknowledged to owe a huge debt to Scott Walker’s 1968 English version (video here), which also uses the Shuman translation. (And which, for some reason, is titled “Jackie” instead of “Jacky.”)

Oh, but I’m just getting started. It’s hard to talk about Brel covers without mentioning David Bowie, since two Brel songs rank in my estimation as possibly the best cover versions Bowie’s ever recorded (behind “Wild Is the Wind,” anyway).

I’ve got some Bowie/Brel video, and other goodies, after the jump.

[Read more →]

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Roundup: Green Blood and Near Beer Edition

June 11th, 2007 · Comedy, Comics, Culture, Hate Crimes, Heroes, Human Rights, Internet, Journalism, Language, LGBT, Media, Music, News, Politics, Roundup, Tech, TV

sarek

  • POLITICS: Department of things that should be perfectly obvious to everyone: Colin Powell says we should close Guantanamo. “Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it.”
  • The AP photographs Bush drinking what apparently is “near beer.” Various blogs point out that “near beer” is not free of alcohol, and is considered dangerous for alcoholics.
  • “Fired by the Universe”: Eli at Weather Head has the ultimate analysis of the Gonzales/fired attorneys scandal — it must be understood as a time travel science fiction story. (Just go read it.)
  • Obama does a good job of refusing to be baited by a bad question.
  • Bush’s buddy Bandar busted by the BBC. “A Saudi prince received secret payments from the UK’s biggest arms dealer, a BBC investigation has revealed. BAE Systems made regular payments of hundreds of millions of pounds to Prince Bandar bin Sultan for more than a decade … The Prince served for 20 years as Saudi ambassador to the US.” As Jonathan Schwartz at This Modern World reminds us, “Two days after the 9/11 attacks, the President asked Bandar to come to the White House. Bush embraced him and escorted him to the Truman balcony. Bandar had a drink and the two men smoked cigars.”
  • THE PINK SECTION: Bush’s nominee for surgeon general is a wacked-out, twisted homophobe. (Via Atrios.)
  • While I’m praising Obama, he made a great statement on the aforementioned nominee: “America’s top doctor should be a doctor for all Americans, and so I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our nation,” Obama said. “As with other nominees, I will listen to the testimony of Dr. James Holsinger, but this Administration must know that the United States Surgeon General’s office is no place for bigotry or ideology that would trump sound science and good judgment.” The other candidates will have to clear a high bar to say it better than that.
  • 15 year old boy in Wales commits suicide by lying down in front of a train, in response to anti-gay bullying by his schoolmates. Just before he died, he used his mobile phone to send a text message to family members, reading: “Tell everyone that this is for anybody who eva said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust 2 me. This is because of them, I am human just like them. I hope they rot in hell 4 what they made me do. They know who they are.” He added: “None of you blame urself mum, dad, Sam and the rest of my family. This is not because of you.” (Via Towleroad.)
  • TECH: On a much brighter note, Julie Amero’s conviction was reversed, and she’s getting a new trial. Thank heaven for small mercies.
  • TEEVEE: Just came across this article with more on the Heroes: Origin spinoff and how it relates to the main series.
  • MUSIC: The B-52’s new album has been pushed back again — apparently now it’s slated for early 2008. Well, at least they got a nice piece in the Post.
  • Arab pop stars perform to raise funds for Darfur.
  • THE COMICS SECTION: Tom the Dancing Bug has Super-Fun-Pax Comics, including “Science Facts for the Immature” and “Cool White Guys Using Ten-Year-Old Black Slang.”
  • Opus: Davie Dinkle has two moms.
  • Bob Geiger has the Saturday cartoon roundup.
  • THE SOCK DRAWER: Via Jason, how to translate Comment Troll into English.
  • Vulcans among us: patient in Canada bleeds green blood. (h/t Jorjet)

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DVD: Priscilla with “Extra Frills”!

June 10th, 2007 · Comedy, Culture, Film, LGBT, Music, News, Video

Priscilla Extra Frills EditionAt long last! An “Extra Frills” special edition of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was released on DVD this week. It includes director commentary from Stephan Elliott, deleted scenes, bloopers, a making-of featurette, trailers, teasers and more. AfterElton.com waxes enthusiastic about it here.

When the film premiered at Cannes, it was such a smash that it nearly caused riots, and it sashayed off with the Audience Prize, nearly guaranteeing solid international distribution for what is at its heart a very Australian film. The movie is as much about the country as it is about the queens; as producer Al Clark put it at the time of the film’s release (echoing the original poster art), “The basic comic premise of the movie is: three people who may as well be Martians, standing in the middle of this enormous country — where in fact, they are Martians.”

Martians or not, these three indefatigable performers inspire everyone they meet and change a lot of minds along the way, a feat that extended to the movie’s production as well, according to Elliott, who said in an interview: “Some of the more macho members of the crew came to the movie thinking it was going to be quite hysterical. By the end they got into it and every one of those boys quite happily put on a dress for the crew photo.”

The infectious charm of Priscilla had that kind of widespread impact: Almost anyone, straight or gay or anything else, could enjoy this film.

I remember seeing Priscilla in a packed theater in San Francisco the week it opened, which was pretty much an unbeatable Priscilla experience. Nontheless, it’s still a lot of fun on video. (And on video I get to hear a lot of the lines that the audience laughed, hooted, and cheered right through that festive night in SF.)

Also, Priscilla is the movie that single-handedly rehabilitated ABBA’s image. Before Priscilla, liking ABBA was a guilty pleasure. (Yes, people, there was still widespread disco shame in America at the beginning of the 90s.) But after Priscilla, not liking ABBA made you seem humorless and uptight.

Also: Hugo Weaving! When Priscilla first came out in 1994, I had no idea who Hugo Weaving was. But when you re-watch Priscilla now, after having seen The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings, you get to go:

Oh my stars!

That’s Agent Smith in a giant wig and a glittery gown, performing as “Mitzi Del Bra”!

That’s Elrond of Rivendell, lip syncing to ABBA!

Then go back and watch The Lord of the Rings, and every time Elrond appears, imagine that in the back of his mind he’s secretly running through the choreography to “Mamma Mia.” While the rest of the Council are all talking about the journey to Mordor, in a little part of his head Elrond is humming, Just one look and I can hear a bell ring!

Believe me, it adds some serious entertainment value.


 

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“People Like Hillary”

June 10th, 2007 · Blogs, Journalism, Media, Politics

Hillary PortraitA big part of the reason I dread the idea of Hillary becoming the Democratic nominee is that during her time in the White House, she never won a single battle with the right wing in the eyes of the media.

Whether the subject was healthcare, how to raise children, baking cookies, Tammy Wynette, or the vast right-wing conspiracy, every time she opened her mouth the media make her look ridiculous and chalked one up for her critics.

As a Senator from New York they’ve treated her somewhat more sympathetically, because they see that role as appropriate for her, and they know she’s representing a constituency that likes her.

But once she’s out of that Senator-from-New-York box and within striking distance of the White House, we’ll be right back in the 90s.

Atrios had a post about Hillary last week in which he wrote:

People like Clinton. She’s the clear frontrunner in national polls. Her strong showing as peoples’ second choice suggests that the “anti-Clinton” constitutency isn’t all that strong.

I’m not writing any of this to make the case for Clinton, I’m just trying to make the case that her detractors underestimate the strength of her support at their peril. Whatever the reasons, her support is real and significant.

Atrios has a tendency to be right about these things, and it may very well be true that people like Hillary — right now. But it’s also important to note that the pundits are treating HRC very differently from the way they will treat her if and when she gets nominated. There are serious kid gloves on at the moment — in a sense, the media are allowing people to like her.

I suspect that many of the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC and even Fox News who are speaking of HRC very warmly and respectfully these days want her to succeed in getting the nomination so they can bring back the kind of fun they had back in the day. And so they’re deliberately holding their fire, dreaming of the time when they can unloose the high-powered sludge cannons that they aimed at her all through Bill Clinton’s presidency. Those cannons are temporarily powered down right now, but they haven’t been decommissioned, believe me.

And what they do to HRC if she gets nominated will make the final weeks of Al Gore’s 2000 campaign look like a garden party.

In the meantime, it’s like watching a couple of mean girls at a high school be really, really nice to the geeky girl they hate as a way of being extra-mean to her.

MEAN GIRL #1: Here comes that spazz-ola Hillary.
MEAN GIRL #2: I have an idea — let’s act like we like her!
MEAN GIRL #1: Ohmigod that’s brilliant! You think of the best stuff. Hey, Hillary!
MEAN GIRL #2: Hey, Hillary!
HILLARY: Hi mean girls, what’s up?
MEAN GIRL #1: Hillary, we totally want you to come to our slumber party this weekend! Also we think that outfit is super cute and we also TOTALLY think you can get elected president!
MEAN GIRL #2: And we think you’ve done a great job of softening your image while looking super-tough on foreign policy!
HILLARY: Really?
MEAN GIRL #1: You’re the only serious candidate. You’re like, totally the most electable one!
HILLARY: Oh, that’s so sweet. You know, I used to think you didn’t even like me!
MEAN GIRL #1: [sotto voce] Ohmigod she’s totally buying it.
MEAN GIRL#2: [also sotto voce] I almost feel guilty.
MEAN GIRL #1: [ibid.] Don’t worry, it’s just till the convention …. Then we can go back to putting our gum in her hair.

… I’ll stop there before I start plagiarizing Carrie.

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The Bravest Little Hobbit of Them All

June 8th, 2007 · Books, Comedy, Culture, Fantasy, Lit, Meta, Music, Video

Posting has been kind of sparse on OcPot this week, because the end-of-the-month deadline drama from last week lapped over into the beginning of the month. It has a way of doing that, sometimes. The drama.

So while I have a ton of stuff I’d like to post, it may be be a couple of days before I get a chance to do it.

In the meantime, I’ll leave Leonard Nimoy to babysit you. This is an old classic, and if you hang around YouTube chances are good you’ve seen it. (If you’ve worked in an office with me, chances are good I’ve made you watch it with me.) But I’ve seen it at least 17 times over the last year or two and it still kills me every time. The lyrics, the delivery, the dance moves, the grinning, the outfits, the location … the sitting jauntily on a rock in a white turtleneck … the inexplicable flying clothes … well, it all adds up to magic.

Ladies and gentlemen, Leonard Nimoy and the Nimoyettes performing “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.” Who was you know, the bravest little hobbit of them all.

 
My favorite thing to do while watching it is to imagine Professor Tolkien watching it. How he might bury his head in his hands; when he might start to rend his garments; at what point he would stand up and mutter Orcish curses, his eyes flaming, the sun darkening, his countenance terrible to behold …

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I’m the Featured Poet at Molly Malone’s Next Week and Oh My God It’s in the Suburbs …

June 7th, 2007 · Books, Chicago, Culture, Journal, Lit, News, Poetry

Molly Malone’sThose who know me know it takes a lot to get me to venture into the uncharted here-be-dragons-ness that is the “-land” part of Chicagoland.

But this coming Monday night, June 11, Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova have done me the immense honor of booking me as the featured poet for their highly regarded poetry and fiction night at Molly Malone’s Irish Pub, in Forest Park.

Which Google Maps tells me is just a wee scooch of a jaunt past Oak Park along this thick yellow line that apparently has something to do with President Eisenhower.

I’ll be reading some poems, and/or some fiction. Which will be, you know, by me. The odds that I’ll be reading at least a few things from my book What the Sea Means are fairly high.

And there’s an open mike, so bring something of your own to read if you want to.

Here are the specs, courtesy of Nina and Al:

Monday, June 11, post-Printers Row, join us in welcoming poet Dave Awl

Molly Malone’s Irish Pub
7652 Madison Street
Forest Park, IL
708-366-8073

$5 if you can, $3 if you can’t

7:00 — open mic sign-up begins
7:30 — open mic
8:45 — featured reader
9:15 — open mic continues if necessary

Poetry/fiction at Molly’s is the second Monday of every month.

Okay, then! See you there.

Here’s that map I was talking about.

And here’s Molly’s Web site.

… I almost checked the “Travel” category box for this post, but I guess that might be overreacting a little.

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